


Risen

by glorious_clio



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, I checked, and i disproved rule 34, background finn/poe - Freeform, i hope you like feeling sad, mama and papa tico - Freeform, ok rose and jacen only meet each other in this fic and make out a bit but this is a new ship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:14:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22049215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glorious_clio/pseuds/glorious_clio
Summary: A sequel, of sorts, to “find your way (back)”. Or, Rose goes home, without her sister.
Relationships: Rose Tico/Jacen Syndulla
Comments: 8
Kudos: 24





	Risen

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to ladyarcherfan3 for beta'ing this story! I will happily claim (and fix) all mistakes. 
> 
> _We won or we think we did  
>  When you went away you were just a kid  
> And if you lost it all and you lost it  
> Well, we'll still be there when your war is over_
> 
> _Lift your head and look out the window  
>  Stay that way for the rest of the day and watch the time go  
> Listen, the birds sing, listen, the bells ring  
> All the living are dead and the dead are all living  
> The war is over, we are beginning_
> 
> _Here it comes, here comes the first step._  
>  \- “In Our Bedroom After the War” by Stars

Haysian smelt was such a perfect conductor that when Rose brushed her fingers against her pendant, it immediately grew warm. She wrapped the cord around her wrist to better hold the pendant in her palm. The metal would imprint on her skin, if she held it hard enough. She wanted the map on her palm, now. 

The Resistance, the Victorious, were intentionally fractioning. Leia Organa didn’t live long enough to lead the rebuilding (re-rebuilding), but even if she had, Rose would have asked to go home. Rose was ten when she left: home was her father’s garden grown melons, home was the tiny cottage that her mother painted bright colors after hard shifts in the mines, home was signing _I love you_ , home was mama and papa checking their homework every night. Home was ash on her tongue. Because despite the pendant, she was returning empty-handed. 

_Home was Paige, wiping her baby sister’s tears_.

The transport to the Otomok system seemed to drag along, and the hop to Hays Minor felt even longer, but finally, she found herself on the hoverbus to Sebris Beta, to find Hue and Thanya Tico. 

_“Mama and Papa will be there waiting for us. For now, just remember, your name is our destiny.”_ Paige said to Rose, their first night as refugees from the First Order. The sisters were rarely apart since their escape, and now, Rose would never see her again. And she had to tell her parents. How Paige died a hero, but how that meant nothing, _nothing_ when Rose missed her big sister so badly it felt like a blaster bolt to her side every day, _every day_. 

(It had been suggested that Rose was suffering from survivors guilt, but after the battle of Crait, Leia took one look at Rose and kept her close. They’d both lost siblings that day, that Sith-awful day.)

She curled up in her seat, her feet resting on her pack, and stared for awhile through the semi-darkness at her decimated planet, which a few layers of snow was trying valiantly to cover. The atmo was thick with pollution; Rose had forgotten. Or perhaps it had grown worse. The bus was old and caked in dust inside and out, and the air filter was loud and banged ominously. Her fellow passengers looked how Rose felt; tired, travel weary, wanting to go home. The landscape was barren, but at least the First Order had been driven off her homeworld. No checkpoints or white helmets or the feeling of tension everywhere you turned. Was this home? She wondered as she worried at her pendent. 

The familiar pressure in her sinuses returned, but Rose fought back her tears. Instead of letting herself cry, she closed her eyes and leaned against the headrest. Sebris Beta was the last stop, the driver would wake her when they arrived.   
  
  
  
  


The hoverbus shuddered to a stop and Rose started awake. There was a crick in her neck, and her left leg was asleep from holding the cramped position. She tried to stretch it, and limping, she was the last one off the hoverbus, pulling her pack high on her shoulders. 

Sebris Beta was... smaller than she remembered. Dirtier. Looking up the ridge, she noticed one of the soil tips was gone. Collapsed? Or removed somehow? She hoped for the latter. 

Turning west, she let herself find her way back to her parents’ home. Beta hadn’t grown much, and she passed by many familiar homes on her way, the local grocery, her primary school, the muddy field where she had played with Paige. Turning left at the stunted tree, she followed the narrow street down to her neighborhood. The houses looked stunted, dirty, though all the walkways were cleared of snow and ice. 

Rose hesitated at the gate, the letters Tico still spelled out on the handle. 

She took a deep breath and swung it open. It didn’t creak with age, it was as silent as she remembered. Rose made her way up the sidewalk, and the ramp to her parents’ front door. It felt like the house could disappear under her hand. 

She pushed the button, which rang a bell and flashed the lights. 

Her heart beat fast in her chest as she heard stirring in the house, no voices though. A hacking cough, somewhere, and then a huge gasp. Thanya Tico threw open the door and launched herself at her youngest daughter. 

“Mama,” Rose sobbed, wrapping her arms around her mother, who was now the same height as her. Rose was drawn in, mama took her bag as papa crushed her in a hug. 

No one mentioned Paige, not yet. 

But soon. They deserved to know, and Rose resolved that she would be brave. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Rose spent a sleepless night in the small bed she had shared with her sister. The next morning, her parents asked. With trembling hands, Rose described what had happened in the last decade since she had seen her beloved mama and papa, how Pae Pae died a cold, hero’s death. Poe had offered to write a letter for her parents, but Rose had shaken the offer off. 

(“Okay,” said Poe. “But you can’t blame yourself.”

“I’ll stop when you do,” she’d replied grimly, packing her bag.)

Papa and mama didn’t move as they watched Rose’s hands sign the fate of their oldest daughter. If they had questions, they didn’t ask them. 

And then papa broke into a hacking cough again, and mama and Rose both rushed for water, tea, a losange, anything to help. 

He was crying softly as he tried to choke down the water, mama’s hand resting gently on his shoulder. 

  
  
  
  
  


Papa was resting in his recliner after his coughing fit, covered in a scratchy blanket. “ _How long has he been this sick?”_ Rose signed in the kitchen.

Mama shrugged. “ _Miner’s lung,_ ” she replied. “ _Almost a year._ ”

No cure, no hope. Not here. 

“ _Do you remember Jado Kesyk? He watches your papa when I’m at work.”_

_“You’re still working?”_

_“Not in the mines, I’m a runner now.”_

Still a dangerous job. And anyway, the demand for smelt was far, far less than it had been even a few months ago. But without the mines, Rose wondered what other work her mother could get, with a sick husband to support. And then she wondered what jobs she could get. Ideally not in the mines. 

But something had to give, something had to change. Rose had learned at Leia’s right hand how to make that change. 

“ _Are you and papa set on staying here?”_ Rose signed. 

Mama looked at her daughter like she had suggested to dye her hair blue. Then she softened, her face crumpled, and Rose, alarmed, wrapped her mother in a hug. 

“I was going to say we have to stay until Pae Pae comes home,” mama whispered. 

Rose knew how that felt. “I know, mama. It’s been a year and I still expect her to be around the corner.” 

They cried for a long minute, mourning Paige, breathing together. 

Finally, mama sat at the low table, clutching a cup of water in one hand, Rose’s fingers in the other. 

“Thank you for coming home to me, Rose. Thank you for surviving.”

Rose hid her eyes behind her other hand. “I think about it all the time, if she had survived and I’d died.” An admission, a confession, to a woman she didn’t know, one she remembered. 

Mama squeezed her hand and said nothing. It seemed to Rose that mama never had a favorite child the way some parents did. There was nothing she could say to Rose’s admission to make her feel better. There was only pain here. Rose brushed her fingers against her medallion. Mama’s eyes followed the movement. 

“I suppose, if you know of a better place, papa and I might be interested. We stayed here because of poverty, and the hope you’d come home some day.”

“I can’t do much about the poverty. The Resistance wasn’t, you know, paid. But I have friends.”

Mama offered a small smile. “Friends are worth more than credits, dear child.”

Oh, but Rose knew that already. 

“I’ll talk to papa tomorrow,” she told her mother. 

  
  
  
  


Mama had to go to work the next day. Rose sent a comm to Finn. And while she waited for a reply, she went out to the shed and gathered what tech and materials she could. Returning inside, she set up space next to her papa. 

“ _What are you making, Rose?”_ he signed. 

“ _I thought I’d try and build a hoverchair for you,_ ” Rose replied. 

She looked down at her work, determined not to see her papa’s reaction. She slowly began with the engine components, seeing what she had, what she would need to get. It was awkward, being home, with parents she didn’t necessarily know. Her recent memories felt too violent to share, even after the death of Pae Pae. But papa reached down to tug her hair gently. Rose looked up again. 

“ _Are you good at making things?”_

Rose smiled. “ _Sometimes,”_ she signed. 

Papa smiled back. He looked much older than she remembered. When she left, his back had been straight. He was proud and tall. Now, there were worry lines all over his face, his hands were covered in spots, his hair had gone completely white. 

Rose reached up and touched his face, the delicate skin, until he began coughing again and shook off her touch. She passed him his canteen of water, and waited, one hand gently resting on his knee. When he stilled, and could breathe again, Rose passed him the pendant he and mama had given her, so many years ago now. 

“ _You and mama are good at making things too. Paige and I, we wore these every day, we never took them off.”_

_“Oh, Rose. You… Understand that this is such a comfort to me.”_

_“We both wanted to come back to you, so badly. I know we lost her body, but I wish I could have brought her necklace back to you."_

Their hands were still, but to wipe tears from their eyes. The grief brought on another coughing fit, but smaller this time. Rose held papa’s hand through it. 

“ _Even after Paige… died,”_ Rose swallowed, her hands trembling, but she continued,“ _I was never alone. I had friends, I had the Resistance. I had Leia Organa.”_

“ _The Princess of Alderaan?_ ”

Rose nodded. “ _She is everything you’ve heard and more. And like Paige, I... we couldn’t bury her properly. But she taught me, before she died, how to keep going._ ”

“ _And how do you keep going, child?”_

Rose smiled, and signed, “ _You follow the light, and look for something to build_.”

Papa nodded. “ _And where is the light?_ ”

Rose signed, “ _I want to take you and mama away from here, to sunlight and fresh air. But only if that’s what you want. But the only thing that’s here for me is you._ ”

“ _We’ll talk when mama gets home,”_ signed papa, after a moment. He looked tired, weary as Rose felt. But he brushed a thumb across Rose’s cheek. 

A year of illness, Rose thought, and who knew what else he and mama had lived through. Despite the war, Rose was still strong enough to save these two. 

  
  
  
  
  
  


Papa was napping when Finn commed back, the distance between them made their call laggy, but it was nice to see his normally serious face wreathed in a smile. 

“Is Yavin 4 agreeing with you, then?”

“Rose, it’s _gorgeous_ here, and Kes Dameron is so nice! Poe and I go flying every day, and they have a Force Sensitive Tree that was replanted here by Luke and Leia. When Rey gets back from Tatooine, we’re going to meditate under it!” 

Rose thought this was a strange thing to be excited about, but she didn’t say anything, just laughing at her friends’ good fortune. 

“How’s _your_ home?” Finn asked earnestly. 

Rose’s lip caught in her teeth. “Not as nice, I’m afraid. Papa is really sick, and mama is working so hard to take care of him. Too hard. Hays Minor is… not a good planet. Papa and mama say they’re going to think about moving. But it’s hard, because…”

Finn had somehow managed to shelve his excitement for himself and looked at her with such concern. 

Rose sniffed, looked away from the lens of the camera. “We’re all still waiting for Paige to come back.”

Finn waited until he was sure that she didn’t have anything further to say, longer than the lagtime.

“I don’t… know how to help, Rose,” he said softly. 

“I wish Leia were here,” Rose admitted. “She’d know what to say.” 

“Would she?” Finn asked. 

Rose startled. Wouldn’t she?

Finn continued. “Look. I can talk to Poe and Kes, I’m sure we can find a spot for you here. With medical treatment for your papa, even. Let me ask around, and when Rey gets back from her mission, we’ll take the _Falcon_ and come get you three. If your parents agree. But even if you don’t leave, I still want to visit.”

Rose sighed. “Okay. Okay, I’ll talk to mama and papa."

Finn smiled at her. “We won the war, Rose. Rebuilding, it’s messy work, but you deserve help.”

Rose nodded, ending the transmission before she could burst into tears again. 

Mama wouldn’t be home for hours, but Rose, needing something to do, took her toolkit and decided to see if she could clean up the filters in her parents’ house. 

  
  
  
  
  


Before mama came home, Finn commed her back with some details from the Damerons - about a house not to far from there, about how medical care on Yavin 4 was free, how there were jobs for a ship mechanic, good jobs with decent pay. “And the people here are all free, Rose.” 

Which meant a lot, the world, coming from Finn. 

Had Rose ever been free? Free to build a new home? 

Mama was tired when she got home, but Rose had made stew and flatbread, and after mama’s shower and another coughing fit from papa, they sat down and ate, discussing what Finn had sent them, and their options for their next steps. Together, as a family. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


It didn’t take long to plan their exit from Hays Minor selling their small house and collecting mama's last paychecks. A few standard days later, Rey returned to Yavin 4, and happily agreed to the mission of meeting Rose. They came one day when the rain poured down, threatening the tips. But Rose felt lighter for seeing her comrades.

They didn’t know how to sign, though. Mama stuck close to papa and did her best to translate the banter between Finn, Rey, and Poe. But no signs were needed when a new hoverchair was revealed for papa to use. As he was overcome with an emotional coughing fit, Rey sweetly rested her hand on Hue Tico’s shoulder, clearly drawing on the Force. Papa’s fit subsided. 

“Can you... heal him?” Rose dared to hope. 

“His lungs are so damaged. But I can make him more comfortable.” 

“That’s not nothing,” mama said, and then signed the explanation to her husband. 

Rose and mama had more or less packed up the house for things they would take with them, and the newcomers made short work of the boxes and bags, Rey showing off with the Force. D-O and BB-8 stuck close to papa while he worked out how to drive his new hoverchair. Mama and Rose packed the kitchen, the last minute items, and soon, all was ready. 

Rose walked with some confidence out the door. She’d left before, her memories of this place were faded and tinged with loss. Now, as then, she held tight to her medallion. 

Mama and papa were a bit slower to make their way to the _Falcon_ , their hands entwined. 

Finn and Rose made sure they were comfortable, while Poe and Rey went through the pre-flight checks. 

“Where’s Chewie?” Rose asked when they buckled in themselves. 

“He’s on Kashyyyk. He said he needed time to grieve,” Finn replied. “Rey dropped him off on her way to Tatooine.” 

Rose understood that perfectly. “Well, maybe I’ll send him a comm.”

“He’d love that,” Finn assured her, brushing her hand with his. “Now,” he turned to her parents. “Did Rose tell you she was the hero of Canto Bight?”

“Oh, stop it,” Rose said, blushing. “ _He’s exaggerating,”_ she signed to her parents. 

“ _I want to hear,”_ Papa signed, nodding at Finn to go on. 

So he did, slowly, so mama had time to sign, and Rose had time to sign her commentary of what she remembered from that day. Her blush intensified when Finn told of saving what she loved, and then planting a kiss on his lips, but mama and papa laughed in delight.

 _“Smart move,”_ Papa signed. 

Rose waved it away, and Finn didn’t ask for the translation. 

  
  
  
  
  
  


Yavin 4 was everything Finn had promised. Warm, sunny, not too humid. Papa was coughing a little less. There was no cure, his lungs were completely blackened. But it was easier for all the Ticos to breathe. And there were meds to help him with his other complaints, and his chronic pain from years in the mines. Mama too, was enjoying not working. She and papa sat in rocking chairs on their sunny porch, watching their new neighbors go about their day, selling apples from the tree that was on their property that the new neighbors were kind enough to buy. And Rose had helped him plant some melons that Kes assured them tasted delicious. 

The new Tico home was about a mile from the Dameron homestead, and Rose liked to walk there when mama and papa napped. The first time she did, Poe brought her to the tree he was telling her about. Rose hoped it would help her feel close to Leia. It didn’t, but that didn’t mean she didn’t like being there. 

It was here that they celebrated Finn taking Poe’s name. 

This had barely been discussed; Finn was complaining about filling out new paperwork. “I can’t be the only being in the galaxy without a family name!”

“You aren’t, but it makes things easier,” Rey Skywalker teased. 

“You can have mine, if you want,” Poe said, blushing a bit. It wasn’t a secret that the two were sleeping together, living together at Kes’ place. 

Finn tackled him in a rough kiss. “I accept,” he said, then went back to kissing. 

“Uh,” Rey said. “Wanna go for a walk?”

Rose readily accepted. They walked straight into the jungle, towards the abandoned temple that had been the Rebel base so, so long ago, when Leia was younger than they were now. 

“How are your parents?” Rey asked as they made their way through the dense foliage. 

“Settled. They seem rested. But we’re all grieving. And papa doesn’t have long, the doctors say.”

Rey nodded. “The Force says his time is near.” She reached for Rose’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.” 

Rose touched Rey’s hand for a squeeze. “Thanks. I keep telling myself that this time with him now is a gift, I didn’t think we’d ever be reunited. But it’s still going to hurt like hell.”

Rey took her hand back and the two made their way to the old base. 

It was well and truly empty. Whatever the Rebels hadn’t been able to take in their evac was long ago stripped by the Yavinians, down to the copper in the walls. Rey found what looked like a briefing room, sat down and meditated. 

Rose kept searching, for what, she wasn’t sure. She knew this place had once been bustling with life, with beings, with rebellion. But now, it was a shell. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Papa lived long enough to attend Poe and Finn’s wedding, a small affair held on Kes’ farm. 

“ _I love weddings_ ,” he signed, when the two grooms turned up to invite the Ticos. 

“ _You better dance with me,”_ Finn signed back. He’d been a quick study. 

“ _You got it,”_ papa signed back. 

Rose was so happy for her friends. The kiss with Finn wasn’t a promise, or anything beyond “We’re alive, dummy. For now, anyway.” She wasn’t sure why, despite the joy for Finn and Poe, her heart felt so heavy. Only that her sister would never have this joy. If Paige was here and Rose had found someone, she’d have danced with her at the party. 

Now, Poe tossed his arm around Rose. They didn’t speak, or even sign, their grief. At who was missing, who would be missing from the celebration. 

Rose said the only thing she could think of, “Leia would’ve been happy for you.”

Poe leaned his head towards her, bumping hers gently, knowing how much those words had cost the younger woman. “And what will make you happy, Rose?”

“I don’t know yet,” she admitted, watching Finn sign slowly with papa.

“Well, Finn and I don’t have it quite figured out yet either. We’ll keep you posted, if you promise to do the same.” 

“You got it, Poe.” They were all figuring out what their future looked like, as Rey would slip away and do Jedi things, as Rose tried to get to know her mama and papa in the time that was left to them. But what next, for any of them? 

He squeezed her shoulder. He didn’t tell her how to feel about the wedding, about the new life on Yavin 4. For that, she was grateful. 

The ceremony itself was very simple. Poe and Finn didn’t invite many people. Mostly beings that already lived on Yavin 4, though Chewie was there, and some friends the Damerons had from Ryloth. The survivors of Black Squadron had flown in the night before, bringing as much booze as they could get past customs. Jannah and a few of her friends arrived from Kef Bir. None of them had ever been to a wedding before, but took to it with enthusiasm. 

During the party, Jannah and Finn found themselves in deep discussion, at least until papa turned up at Finn’s side, asking about their dance. With a flourish, Finn led papa out on the dance floor. The awkwardness of dancing with someone in a hoverchair was erased by Finn’s enthusiasm. 

(It turned out that Jannah was telling Finn about her work with Lando, that they were trying to find a place for the storm troopers, if any good could be done for them, if they could find a path forward. Not collectively, but individually. This twisted Rose’s heart.) 

Rose was drinking with Rey when the handsome green-tipped humanoid who had come with the lovely older Twi’lek woman introduced himself as Jacen and asked Rose to dance. Rey gave the man an appraising look, then took Rose’s drink and pushed her gently towards the floor. 

All in all, it turned into an excellent night, and Rose let her grief rest while she danced, sang, and celebrated with Finn and Poe’s kith and kin. 

  
  
  
  
  


Papa died. 

It wasn’t so dramatic as Paige’s death. For one, he passed in his sleep, next to mama. For another, they had a body to bury. 

Rose hadn’t seen a grave in ages. 

Poe, Finn, and Rey came back to Yavin 4 to help, to pay respects for a man they hardly knew. At the burial, Poe spoke: about how Hue Tico had been a good man, about how he too, had suffered because of the First Order, how his last weeks had been, restful, with his family. He spoke not of big heroics, but small ones, ordinary ones. Rose didn’t cry; she held mama up. 

The dancer Jacen came, too. After he sat next to the grave with Rose, not saying anything until she was ready to walk home. Rose knew that he had also grown up without a father. The whisper birds were singing as the sunlight filtered through the lush trees. A few stolen kisses at a wedding party didn’t mean anything to her, but this silent walk meant more than she could say, and she was touched that he turned up. Poe must have commed him. 

She led him back to the house she’d shared with her parents, where Kes was serving comforting foods and BB-8 was rolling around, charming people. D-O was in the corner, and everyone left them be. 

It was a small group, with no one from Hays Minor. But the surviving Ticos didn’t spend the night alone, and that wasn’t nothing. 

When the sun dawned bright the next morning, Rose tumbled into her mama’s bed, with a sense of relief: Papa didn’t have to suffer anymore. His surviving daughter slept for twelve hours straight. And then she did what Leia had taught her, what her name meant: she got up again. There was work to do. 

Rose used the ‘fresher, washed her face, combed her hair and pulled it back. She drank a full canteen of water and refilled it, strapping it to her hip. She grabbed an apple. Leaving a note for her still sleeping mama, Rose stepped out into the twilight and made her way to the Force tree on the Dameron homestead. 

Maybe because they knew her so well, or maybe because her Force sensitive friends felt it, Rey, Finn, Poe, and Jacen met her there. Someone had brought a blanket and a basket of food, and the friends were content to talk of nothing, light teasing conversations. Rose was mostly quiet, sitting between Rey and Jacen. For his part, Jacen had known Poe his whole life, and teased Poe mercilessly about being each other’s first boyfriends at the worldly age of six. Rose smiled at the green tipped man with the easy laugh. He had sharp teeth, but other than his coloring, looked very human with eyes the color of most salt oceans. 

Silence fell when Poe pulled out an expensive brandy and all of them, remembering someone, toasted to stardust. 

And then Finn turned to Rose. “Do you remember those kids in Canto Bight?”

“Of course,” Rose said. How could she forget them? 

“They aren’t the only enslaved kids, enslaved people in the galaxy,” Jacen said gently. 

“And Jacen and half of Ryloth have been working hard to try and free slaves,” Poe added. Jacen had joined in the battle of Exegol, providing air support with his mother, Hera. But most of their work was based off Ryloth, Rose now understood. And from what Rose knew of twi’leks, she could understand the impulse. 

“Finn was taken when he was three, I was abandoned, left at not much older, and you and your sister didn’t have it much better,” Rey said gently. “I know the Jedi used to take infants, but anyone I train will be old enough to choose that path, I promise.”

Jacen nodded, and squeezed Rose’s hand. 

She suddenly felt a path before her, where before there wasn’t one. What Jacen was doing, what Finn and Poe were suggesting. Rey was nodding along. She thought of them all, forced into a generational war, now hoping to set to next generation free. 

Rose cleared her throat and said in a sturdy voice. “What’s our first step?” 


End file.
